Yandex Buys ADFOX; Trading Desk Transparency

Russian Internet giant Yandex acquired ADFOX, a company that provides planning, managerial and analytics services for in-banner, mobile and video internet ad campaigns. In June, ADFOX’s chief development officer, Boris Omelnitskiy, told AdExchanger, “We work mostly on the sell side and many of the independent publishing players in Russia are among our clients, because Yandex, Mail.ru and Google all have their own ad technology.” Read the press release.

Taking The Heat

Brian Jacobs tackles trading desk transparency in a piece for MyersBizNet. Though Xaxis has been clear, "or clear-ish," Jacobs says others like Accuen "are still something of a mystery. It's almost as if the others are happy to sit back and let Xaxis cop the flack." Insisting on transparency, Jacobs adds, "If agencies were serious about business partnerships and about being paid accordingly they would come clean about the unofficial or non-transparent income they make.” Read on.

Apple’s Privacy Challenge

In the wake of Apple's product release, the NYT's Brian Chen and Steve Lohr consider the inherent privacy challenges of Apple Pay and smartwatch. But Apple's dead clear about not storing payment data on devices or on Apple's servers. At the release on Tuesday, Apple CEO Timothy Cook said, “We’re not looking at it through the lens that most people do of wanting to know what you’re buying, where you buy it at, how much you’re spending and all these kinds of things.” More.

Data-Driven Change

In a special report on advertising and technology from The Economist, Alexandra Suich writes, “Technology is profoundly changing the dynamics of advertising. Building on the vast amount of data produced by consumers’ digital lives, it is giving more power to media companies that have a direct relationship with their customers and can track them across different devices.” She adds, “An entire industry has sprung up around targeted ads.” The Economist joins the ranks of publishers who are paying attention to ad tech. Read it.

Facebook Ad UX

Facebook is asking users for more detailed feedback on the ads they see, and will use that info to increase relevancy. “Most advertisers will see no change to the delivery of their ads or how their ads perform on Facebook,” reads the post. “These updates are designed to affect the ads that a small set of people give us negative feedback on, and allow us to show people ads that we think are most relevant for them, and make sure advertisers are getting their messages in front of the right people.” It’s about the ad experience, not the algorithm. Blog post.